Kauffman, John D. (1847-1913)

John D. Kauffman (1847-1913), was born in Logan County, Ohio, lived most of his life in Elkhart County, Indiana, but moved to Shelbyville, Illinois, in 1907, where he died. He was an unordained self-appointed "preacher" until 1911, when he was ordained bishop by Bishop Peter Zimmerman of the Linn Township Amish Mennonite Church. The group which followed Kauffman from Indiana in 1907 was organized into a congregation (Mt. Hermon) and built a meetinghouse near Shelbyville in 1912, where they continued with a maximum membership of 85 (1930), which in 1954 was down to 45, with Joseph Reber as bishop, who was ordained in 1914 as Kauffman's successor. Preacher S. E. Yoder of Delafield, and Peter Zimmerman of Roanoke sided with the group.

The Kauffman group, with the two congregations at Mt. Hermon and Linn Township, became known as the Sleeping Preacher group because of Kauffman's strange custom of going into trances for several hours at a time, during which he conducted a religious service and preached a full sermon.